music is entertainment is life

Deepest Condolences to Super Junior Leeteuk and Family

I definitely didn’t plan on making a blog post on such a subject but in the last 24 hours or so, it has certainly been a really emotional time. There were so many things going through my head that I just had to post it up.

If you don’t already know, I love the Korean super group Super Junior to bits and have gladly allowed myself to get sucked into the fandom.

So when the news broke last night about Leeteuk’s father and paternal grandparents passing, it came as such a shock to everyone in the kpop community. It was breaking news on Korean media outlets partly because it was Super Junior’s Leeteuk and it was 3 family members at one go. Triple whammy.

First up, the condolence messages (ok, I’m just reposting what I used on the fanbase):

이특 오빠 지금 너무 힘든 시간인 것 같아요. 속에 참지 마세요. 울고 싶으면 우세요. 오빠의 마음에 편해질 거예요. 우리 팬들이 오빠와 가족님이 잘 견디시기를 기도할게요. 그리고 우리는 항상 오빠 옆에 있고 아직도 기다리고 있어요. 사랑해!EN: Oppa must be going through a really hard time right now. Please do not bottle everything inside. If you want to cry, please cry it all out. You will feel better. We are keeping you and your family in our prayers. Also, we will always be beside you and are still waiting for you. We love you!

As one of the Korean/Chinese to English translators in a Super Junior fanbase, it was especially sad to have to read a lot of the news and updates from all over on such a sensitive and painful subject. Throw in all the emotions from the gazillion fangirls from an entire fandom, it was really very difficult to not feel sad enough to start crying.

I’m not complaining but it gets really depressing and disheartening when you skim through the internet and see comments like, “this is just an excuse for him to get out of the army.” I quite literally would have like to take a pen/pencil and stab that person who wrote the comment. It is so insensitive and it makes you lose your faith in humanity. I get how trolling can be fun at times but it is extremely distasteful in such a situation.

A lot of people don’t understand/care about how powerful words can be on the internet and how quickly it can spread. You’ll never know how much damage a casual snide remark could cause until it’s too late. And by then, eradicating the world of cancer won’t even be enough an act to redeem yourself for all the damage caused.

That said, not all has been bad. I was actually really surprised by how many fanbases actually sent nice words to various Super Junior fanbases. Also, I was kinda touched by how non-Super Junior related fanbases have picked up a message I posted on the fanbase about respecting the privacy of Leeteuk and his family + the other Super Junior boys while they grief and mourn and made the effort to spread the word around.

What moved me the most was how many people (including the media outlets in Korea) actually respected Leeteuk’s family need for privacy and have stopped making news articles/fan accounts.

Faith in humanity restored.

Finally, it also makes me (not so) secretly proud that Leeteuk has received so much public outpouring of condolences from many other idols. It is a sure sign that all the hard work that Leeteuk has done affected many idols and hence he is well loved and respected by many in the industry.